Nico Paz, a diamond for Madrid… And for Argentina: "Zero calls with Spain"
The last month has been crazy for Nico Paz (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 2004). That's what happens when you have talent. The Real Madrid youth player has played for four teams in five competitions. He finished October playing in the Youth League under Arbeloa, scored two goals in several games with Castilla de Rául, made his debut in the First Division against Valencia and Cádiz, traveled to Japan with the Argentine under-23 team led by Mascherano and This Wednesday night he was Madrid's hero against Naples, scoring the first goal of his life in the Champions League and confirming the first place for Ancelotti's team in the group stage.
With 19 years old last September, his appearance is no coincidence. “He is here to stay,” they say in Valdebebas, where Paz's name has been at the top of La Fábrica's list of young people with the greatest projection for some time.. «It is pure modern football. “It has everything,” they insist.. And the young midfielder accumulates the virtues that Ancelotti himself has listed so many times when referring to other players in his squad, such as Fede Valverde or Camavinga.. Bridging the gap but without exaggerating the definition, Paz has physique, route, power, technique, goal and effort. All required in Carletto's Madrid in which everything matters: “Modern football requires players capable of covering a lot of ground and being good with the ball,” he explained.
And in the lower categories of Valdebebas, few fulfill that task like Nico. «Many first team players have been surprised to see him training with the seniors. “They say he has a lot of talent,” explain sources close to the locker room.. The Tenerife native has been training with Ancelotti's squad for many months and even traveled to the preseason tour of the United States.. There he earned a place in training, a step prior to entering the squad, enjoying a few minutes of garbage in dead games and, as against the Italians, being the first emergency solution for complicated situations.. “Luck also has a lot of influence,” they add in the sports city.
And Paz, one of the biggest projects of the quarry, has had the half hour in an important game that perhaps other young people have lacked in recent years. But that's Madrid. Nothing is given away and the competition is unmatched. The Arribas, Blanco, Marvin, Chust or Gutiérrez are now looking in Primera for the minutes that the white team cannot give them. They have talent, but surely not 'the' talent to break down the door. Will Paz have it?
The call from Argentina
In Valdebebas they believe so and that is why they renewed it until 2027. He would be the first youth player to make the real leap since the generation of the Llorente, Morata, Hakimi, Jesé or Mayoral, footballers who spent at least a year in the first team rotation. Staying longer is another story. So far, he has scored in the Champions League and is Castilla's top scorer, drawing the attention of the Argentine team due to the ineffectiveness of the RFEF.
Because Paz, with that chicharrero accent he has, is the son of Pablo Paz, a former international soccer player for Argentina who played, among others, for Tenerife.. He started at Atlético San Juan on the Canary Island, jumped to 'Tete' and at the age of 12 flew to the Peninsula to join La Fábrica. His mother is Spanish, but the young man will end up wearing the albiceleste because Scaloni did trust him and summoned him before the World Cup to a concentration with the absolute. “No one has called him,” they say about the Federation's lack of interest. “0 calls with the Spanish youth teams,” criticized Arbeloa when he was dating the youth team.. “Now he wants to follow in his father's footsteps.”